Continuation of Spring Break

Continuing with my spring break:

Day 5: We have made it to Etosha National Park! It’s kind of funny seeing all these retired folks dressed up in true safari gear with their kaki pants and hats. They think they are so cool 🙂 But, driving around in our little Volkswagen Polo makes me feel like a true safari woman! Today we saw giraffes, zebras, and enough springboks to feed an entire nation, but nonetheless it’s still cool to see. Everytime I see wildabeasts I think about how they kiled Mufasa. My favorite encounter though were the elephants! We drove up to Olifants Bar, the ‘local hangout’ for elephants. At first there was no sight of them, but about 2 minutes later we see them coming! Did you know they actually line up like in The Jungle Book’s “Elephant Parade” when they walk? Yeah, me either. It was really cool though. We watched them at their waterhole for about twenty minutes.

Day 6: We woke up early today to get a head start on the animal scouting. Well worth it though, because we got to get pretty close to some lions! (Don’t worry mom and dad, I wasn’t too close). The lions were just chillin by a waterhole, but then they got up and started walking towards some shade. On the way they passed a herd of springbok. I thought we were going to get lucky and see some crazy animal kill, but I guess the lions were full. The lions passed the springbok like it was no big deal, even though the springbok were frozen in their tracks. I would be too if I was a springbok.

Anyways, after that we drove around the park for a couple hours and didn’t really see anything. But thats the adventure of safaris I guess. It’s not some zoo that labels when and where you can see some wildlife. We gave up after a couple hours and went back to our campsite. We then sat by the pool for the rest of the afternoon, sippin on some appletisers. We ran into some other Dutch international kids, which was nice.

In the evening we went down to the waterhole (about 5 minute walk from our campsite) and watched the sunset. It was beautiful with the reflection of the water and the sound of the birds and everything. Once the excitment of the sunset was gone though everyone started shuffling around to go back to the campsite. But then a mama and baby rhino came out! Usually the rhinos don’t come till 9-10 at night, so seeing them come out this early was really convenient. The rhinos were so cute! We got to see the mama nurse its baby which I think is kinda cool. It was a nice ending to our last night in Etosha.

Day 7: Today is another day of driving. Not too bad though. I think it was 5 hours to our next destination, Windhoek, the countries capitol. During our drive, I heard Arizona mentioned on the radio news! They were talking about the power outage that hit a little of AZ, CA and Mexico. Not sure why it was relavent for Namibia, but then again, the news in Namibia is always a little wierd. A couple days before I heard a 15 minute story about how this drunk named David bit a pet snake twice and the snake had to get stiches. Why that is important, I’m not sure. But hey, maybe Namibia has nothing else to talk about, so why not talk about David the Snake Biter!

We made it to our hostel, The Cardboard Box, which was pretty nice. They had a pool and a bar and everyone was really relaxed and friendly.

Day 8: We attempted to see some of Windhoek today, but just like most African cities, they closed early on the weekend. Everything closed at 1! In the countries capitol! So we didn’t get to do much, just stroll around some shops and have lunch.

On our way home we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner. My friend Sylvia bought this ice cream bar, but once she opened it it looked horrible! It looked as if it had been frozen, melted, then refrozen about a dozen times. It also looked like if she had one bite she would be sick for a week. She asked if she could get a different ice cream bar since this one was nasty and the ladies working looked at her like she was nuts. They told her no and said she was a “weak woman” if she couldn’t eat that.

Back at the hostel I met some funny locals. As soon as I told them I was from The US they said “ooooh, your Obama’s sister from another mister!” I got that a lot in Namibia. Everyone is a big fan of Obama here. The guy at the hostel kept going on and on about how Obama is going to bring change to Africa, which I found a bit sad because Obama isn’t doing anything for Namibia, nor will he ever. But I didn’t want to kill the guy’s hope so I let it go.

The guy then said to me “Hey, listen here. You know Obama was born here. He was born in Africa’s backyard.”

And I replied “No, actually he wasn’t. Obama just released his birth certificate saying he was born in The States. If he wasn’t born in The US he couldn’t be president.

The man looked at me like I was half retarded. “No, no, no. You listen here girly. OBAMA WAS BORN IN AFRICA! I’m tellin’ ya!”

I let it go at that point, but found it a bit humurous that the debate about Obama’s nationality could be seen all the way in good ól Namibia 🙂

Later that night I met another Namibian local. He tried to tell me that people mistake him for Brad Pitt. I told him I didn’t see the resemblance (partially because this guy was black and Brad Pitt most definetly is not, but of course I didn’t say that) and looking confused and totally serious, the guy said “Really? Strange. I’ve gotten it [mistaken for Brad Pitt] twice.”

Day 9: Our last day on our roadtrip, we decided to go all the way from Windhoek to Stellenbosch, so I spent about 13 hours in the car. We had 3 drivers in our car though, so it wasn’t too bad. On the radio I got to hear some Ryan Sechrist and the American top 20 (again, not sure why this is playing in Namibia). It was nice to get a little slice of home.

The top news story of the day was about how the president is asking Namibian cattle farmers to raise better breeds of cattle. Gotta step it up, Namibia.

We finally made it home around 12 at night. I was glad to be back in my own bed and take a nice, hot, long shower. Then I realized how funny it is that I now consider my little flat here in Concordia my ‘home’…..

Thanks for reading, friends.
Pictures are coming soon

Roadtrip to Namibia!

Hello all! SO sorry I haven’t updated in a while, I’ve actually been busy with schoolwork (for the first time all semester). Anyways, South Africa had spring break a couple weeks ago (yes, I’m way behind in the posts. oops. ) and I took the opportunity to travel to Namibia! It was a really nice trip. I didn’t have internet when I was there, so I couldn’t update as I went along, but I wrote everything down as if I was updating daily. Here ya go (sorry it’s going to be a long post):

Day 1: We have made it to Namibia! We woke up bright and early today, but it only took us about 6 1/2 hours to make it to the border. Not bad at all. My first impression of Namibia is the really friendly people! When we made it to the border I was half expecting some doushey border patrol guy but was suprised when the guard was smiling and making jokes with us. Once we reached the other side I went to the atm to get out some money. It was kinda funny that I recieved South African Rand and Namibian Dollars all mixed together. The exchange rate is 1:1 so thats kinda nice.

We spent our first night camping in Fish River Canyon. The landscape reminded me a lot of home – dry, endless prairie with mountains in the horizon. There isn’t much to Namibia. There are only 1.9 million people in the whole country, which leaves lots of room for highways, animals, and nothing.

Day 2: When we woke up we went to go ask the receptionist the best route to our next destination. We are now getting a sense of what “Namibian time” is: the lady told us that Windhoek was a “really, really short drive.” What does that mean? Well, it means it will take us 3 hours to get there. But, nonetheless I got excited about her answer so I let out a little “woo!” She looked at me with huge eyes and a blank face.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Woo,” I said. “Kinda like yippee”

Blank face.

“Yay?”

Blank face.

“Hoorah?

Blank face.

“Well, nevermind. It’s like a sound of happiness. I’m happy.”

“Oh. ok….” she finally said. “Well, good for you!”

After we figured out our next destination we hopped in the car and started driving. I started noticing that every little gas station or turnoff had hitchhikers. Sometimes one or two, but sometimes up to 20 people trying to get a ride! Where do they want to go? How long do they have to wait? The whole thing is kinda wierd…..

Day 3: Driving for nearly two whole days has paid off becaus we have already made it to Swakupmund! It’s a German influenced city that is suppose to be a poppin’ place for tourists. We could tell it wasn’t tourism season however because the town was dead. Besides a few locals (I got to see a traditional Himbu woman!) there wasn’t much going on.

As my friends and I were walking down the beach, a man approached us. After we made some small talk, he handed me this big white rock he was carrying. He said it was a present to his new friend from The States. I laughed and stuck it in my camera bag, then we all moved along. Later on, when I saw his friend in the African market, I told him I still had the rock and he laughed and thought it was awesome. The rock kinda weighed my bag down for the rest of the trip, but I still have it now sitting in my window. What I will do with it, I don’t know.

I also met the cutest little kid in the market. As we were walking down the different “stores” I passed this kid who was starting to cry. I stopped and looked at him, then smiled. He smiled too and then asked me to hold him. I asked his mother if it was ok, even though I knew she would be fine with it (African people are way more trusting when it comes to their children and strangers). My friend took our picture and the little kid started laughing. When she showed him his picture you could tell he thought it was the coolest thing ever. I briefly thought about running with the kid while I still had him in my arms, but I figured the mom could probably run faster than me.

When we returned to the hostel we met some German boys (we ran into a lot of Germans on the trip) and went out for some drinks. It was funny that the bar had last call at 10:30, but what can you expect in a ghost town. TIA.

Day 4: We went sandboarding today! We made arrangements with the hostel and got this smokin’ deal which was definetly worth the 350 (roughly 50 bucks) that I spent! The ride there was a bit bumpy. Ok, actually it was really bumpy. Blasting through a dirt road in a mini bus going 100km an hour isn’t what I had in mind, but it was kinda like a roller coaster (especially when I got so much air from hitting a pothole in the road I almost hit my head on the ceiling). We went out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by beautiful, natural sand dunes.

Once we got there we were given a brief intro to what we would be doing that day, strapped on our snowboards which would also pass for sandboards and hiked up a 90km dune. Halfway up the dune I started to realise that the day wasn’t going to be as fun as I planned. Can you imagine walking up a giant sand dune multiple times wearing snowboard boots? Yeah, wasn’t fun. And the worst part was after every run you had to climb back up! Once I hit the 4th time around I was cursing the sand in every step I took. But going down the dune was fun! It didn’t hurt as much as snow does, and I actually found it pretty easy to get the hang of.

The craziest part of sandboarding was when we got a chance to go down bellyside! Kind of like boogie boarding, we layed belly down on this flat piece of wood (after waxing the underside, of course). I knew I wasn’t going to like flying head first down a mountain, but I figured I couldn’t pass the opportunity. So I put my big girl panties on and did it. About 1.5 seconds into the ride I remembered why exactly I don’t like rollercoasters. I’ll admit it, I was terrified. At the bottum of the dune was a guy with a speedometer, and he clocked me at 67 km per hour (so roughly 39 miles an hour). At the end, I was really glad I did it, though I don’t think I would do it again.

The instructor we had was this really neat lady from San Fransisco. I asked her when she had moved to Namibia, and she told me she hasn’t officially moved yet, she just hasn’t left. I then asked her how long she has been here, and she said 19 years! But hey, I don’t really blame her. I think I could spend 19 years in Africa too.

After boarding we continued our roadtrip. We spent the night at Otjou, a wee little town close to the Etosha boarder, our next destination. When we arrived at this little lodge that we were going to stay at, we were really pleased at first with the room we were given. It looked nice and cozy, and the bed looked like a big puffy cloud of heaven. Right as I was going to climb into bed though I saw this gnarly spider on the wall and it freaked me out. Luckily for me my friend Johanna spent some time in Australia where the spiders are huge so she had enough balls to smash it for me (mind you it did take a good 15 minutes of battle between the two). I was still a little freaked out about the spider incident but I decided to let it go. That was until I pulled the blanket down so I could crawl into bed and saw a million baby spiders crawling around instead! At that point we were all on edge. What did we do? Well, Sylvia and Johanna were brave enough to pitch a tent and sleep in it. But Jule and myself, we knew what was out there in the wild. So we slept in the car. But hey, don’t underestimate the power of a car. I had one of the best night sleeps of the whole trip that night. And it was even spider free.

Ok friends, I think that’s all for now. Tomorrow I will give you the rest of my trip. I don’t want to overload you right now with too much fun adventures! Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words…

Hello! So I really don’t have much to say at the moment but I figured I would post a bunch of random photos and let the pictures do the talking for me. Enjoy! Let me know what you think 🙂